Improvement in time-indicators for railroad-trains



UNITED STATES PATENT Prion,

IMPROVEMENT IN TIME-INDICATORS FOR RAILROAD-TRAINS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 46,'7S7, dated March 14, 1865.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J. C. S. FrrzPATnioK, of the city and county of Kalamazoo, in the State of Michigan, have invented a new and Improved Time-Indicator for Railroads, &e. and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in Which- Figure l is a front view of my improved indicator. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two figures.

This invention consists in securing to or in a suitable frame a number of clock-dials provided with adjustable hands of peculiar arrangement, the dials being employed to designate the places from which the trains are to start or at which they are to stop, and the hands to indicate the time of the departure, arrival, or discontinuance in the running of such trains, as will be hereinafter fully ex plained.

The following description will enable oth ers skilled in the art to which my invention appertains to fully understand and use the same.

In the accompanying drawings, A represents a plate of any suitable material, which, together with the back A, is hinged to a frame, B, and covered with glass, C. Upon the face of the plate A are dials D, which may be produced by printing, painting, stamping, engraving, or in any other desirable Way.

E E are hands adapted to indicate, respect ively, the hour and minute at which a train is to start'from or arrive at a given point. The hands E are each keyed upon a spindle, e, which extends backward through the plate A, and is threaded for the reception of a nut or Washer, e', whereby the shaft e may be adjusted so as to cause the hand E to point to either of the graduations on its dial. The hour-hand E is mounted upon the shaft e in such a manner that it may be adjusted by hand. The plate A and back A are hinged independently-that is to say, the back may be turned back from the plate to give access to the rear ends of the spindles e and to the washers c.

Between the XII and I, or at any other point on each dial, is a cipher or other suitable character, by pointing at which the hands are made to indicate that the train to which the dial appertains does not run.

It is designed to have one dial for each train, and on, over, under, or alongside the dial is printed, pointed, or engraved, the name of the train whose time is to be indicated, with the principal stopping-places, con nections, &c.

lllhe plate A and back A may be held in closed position by a button, or they maybe locked in any manner to prevent tampering.

By combining, in the manner above described, the necessary number of dials and hands in one frame with the accompanying printing, engraving, or painting I provide a perpetual railroad timetable that will not only be benecial to the public, but will be an economical and valuable device for the use of railroad companies, to be used instead of the ordinary printed time-tables, which incur considerable expense, inasmuch as they have to be reprinted whenever the time of a train is varied, when the running of a train is discontinued, and when a new train is to be put upon any line ot' the road. It will le seen that by my invention these several circumstances may be made known without the necessity of reprinting, or other trouble or expense than the mere adjustment of the hands.

I propose to introduce my improved indicators for use in hotels and in railroad-stations along the route of any railroad, in the former to indicate the time for all trains leaving or arriving in a certain city or town, and in the latter case to be used to show the hour and minute at which all trains (on the road so using them,) shall leave or be due at that particular station.

I am aware that dials, with adjusted hands, have been used for railroad time-indicators, and I therefore limit my claim as follows, to Wit:

l. A time-table consisting of a series of dials with movable hands, having one such ranged as above specied, the employment dial for every train, so that the indicator for of a cipher in the manner above described, to each train designated shall be permanent and indicate the suspension of running of a train.

not require adjustment, except when changes J. C. S. FITZPATRICK. are made in the time of starting, as herein- Witnesses: above set forth. OcTAvIUs KNIGHT,

2. In combination with a time-reporter, ar- C. D. SMITH. 

